scholarly journals Barriers and Impediments to a Holistic Approach to Promoting Super-Energy-Efficient (SEE) Homes

2011 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 93-103 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qian Chen ◽  
Gary Kinzel ◽  
Allen Zimmerman ◽  
Scott Potter ◽  
Michael Lichtensteiger

Reducing energy consumption and environmental impacts of homes remains a critical task for researchers and practitioners. Although numerous energy efficient (EE) home strategies have been developed, their adoption across the entire industry has still been limited. Nationwide, only a small number of EE homes have been built under several well-known EE home programs. Therefore, the research question of, “what prevents EE homes from being widely accepted and built?” needs to be addressed and investigated thoroughly. This paper presents the findings—a comprehensive set of barriers and impediments to the wide spread adoption of EE homes—from an on-going effort made by an alliance of researchers, educators, builders, suppliers, appraisers, real estate agents, and other parties associated with the home construction industry. These findings are being used to develop and implement a holistic action plan to advance the cause of EE homes through research, education, and outreach. The provided insights will also help other researchers, educators, practitioners and government agencies re-evaluate the strategies used in promoting EE homes and improve the effectiveness of on-going and future programs.

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-10
Author(s):  
Ankit Srivastava ◽  
Prathna T.C.

Water is indispensable to sustain life and livelihood, and rivers serve as major reservoirs of water in manyparts of the world. River Yamuna is the major tributary of the River Ganges in India and is considered to be among the most polluted rivers of the world. The Yamuna Action Plan (YAP) is one of the largest river restoration projects in India and is initiated to clean the river. YAP is a bilateral arrangement between the governments of India and Japan, and consists of three Actions Plans-I, II and III. YAP-III is currently under execution with some of the major projects being the construction of the new Wastewater Treatment Plant (WWTP) at Okhla, rehabilitation and upgrading of WWTPs at Kondli and Rithala in the Delhi region. The impact of YAP-III with regard to these major projects on the reduction of the pollutant load reaching the river and cost-benefit has been evaluated in the current study. Findings from the study indicated that major projects such as construction of a new WWTP at Okhla (124 MGD) can effectively reduce the pollutant load by 283 kg/MGD of wastewater at a cost of Rs. 1161 crores while the rehabilitation project at Rithala (Phase I) can reduce the pollutant load by 92.5 kg/MGD wastewater at a cost of Rs. 300 crores. The present study indicates the need to evaluate projects in terms of cost-benefit analysis in addition to the economic and environmental evaluation for effective action. A holistic approach towards treatment of pollutant load in the river and prevention of further pollutants from reaching the river is required in addition to community awareness and participation for sustainable river water management.


Author(s):  
Robert Tracey ◽  
Lan Hoang ◽  
Felix Subelet ◽  
Vadim Elisseev

2017 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 19-29 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tetiana Kryvomaz ◽  
Dmytro Varavin

As a result of research into the state of the housing stock in Kiev and the prospects for its reconstruction, the main levels of implementation of eco-energy-efficient measures have been identified, taking into account the increasing cost / effectiveness ratio, which will include problem assessment, optimizing energy costs, eco-energy efficient housing reconstruction, application of innovative technologies. Based on the national and international experience of reconstruction and overhaul, the 6E concept is proposed, which focuses on energy efficiency, environmental safety, economy, ecology, ergonomics and aesthetics of the reconstruction process. Compliance with the basic requirements of eco-energy efficiency in the process of housing reconstruction will ensure the comfort of residents and will improve the level of environmental safety of our country. Introduction of the principles of energy efficiency in the process of reconstruction of housing stock is an integral part of Ukraine's environmental and national security, as it ensures a reduction in the negative impact on the environment and people, and also significantly reduces the waste of the construction industry.


Author(s):  
Afshin Jalali Sohi ◽  
Marian Bosch-Rekveldt ◽  
Marcel Hertogh

Abstract Increased project complexity, project dynamics and changes in clients’ requirements are a few examples that suggest the necessity for flexibility in project management in order to deliver successful projects. Despite the fact that literature suggests adding flexibility to project management, there is no existing framework that provides a practical method for adding flexibility into the practice of project management in the construction industry. Therefore, this research is aimed at proposing a practical framework that helps practitioners in embedding project management flexibility into their project management practice. The research question is as follows: how to embed flexibility in the practice of project management in the early project phases? To answer the research question, four sub-questions have been formulated, which have been separately researched. The main question is answered by proposing a flexibility framework. This framework comprises four stages: understanding the current situation, practitioners’ perspectives on flexible project management, choosing enablers to become flexible and applying selected enablers to improve project performance. The framework is validated using the examples given by practitioners from 24 cases. Considering the movements towards flexibility and adaptability concepts, this research fills the gap in literature by providing a practical framework for project management flexibility. Moreover, it provides a step-by-step guideline for practitioners to embed flexibility in practice.


2018 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 7-14 ◽  
Author(s):  
Krzysztof Dziekoński ◽  
Omar Hesham Mohamed Fawzy Ibrahim ◽  
Abdul-Majeed Mahamadu ◽  
Patrick Manu

Abstract Construction industry is considered as one of the most important sectors in Egypt. One of the major challenges faced by the industry, however, is the unavailability of suitable performance measurement systems for assessing companies’ performance. Modern performance assessment systems adopt a more universal approach to the measurement of construction company performance as opposed to the traditional project triangle. This paper aims to examine the practice of performance measurement in the Egyptian construction industry. Results show dominant role of in-house developed performance management systems as well as the use of KPIs as a method of performance assessment. The study further reveals that the highest importance is given to measures related to the time of project delivery, quality of works, clients’ satisfaction and profitability. Hence, the traditional project triangle of project’s success is the most prevalent approach to performance evaluation in the construction industry in Egypt. However, a shift towards a more holistic approach to performance assessment in larger companies was observed.


2019 ◽  
Vol 2 (01) ◽  
pp. 1-16
Author(s):  
Agus Subagyo

This article aims to explain the 2018-2019 state defense action plan in Presidential Instruction No. 7 of 2018 which mandates all ministries, non-ministerial government agencies, and local governments to take action to defend the country through three stages, namely the stages of socialization, internalization, and movement action. The dilution of the state defense action plan at the central government level has been very active, however, at the level of the reverent regional government it has not yet been felt, especially with the existence of regional autonomy where the central government is not necessarily able to "control" the regional government, so that all this needs attention parties, to see the perspective of the regional government in implementing the state defense action plan.


Author(s):  
Apitep Saekow ◽  
Choompol Boonmee

In November 2006, Thai Government announced Thailand electronic government interoperability framework (TH e-GIF) as a collection of technical standards, methodologies, guidelines and policies to enable electronic data exchange across government agencies. The first challenging project was to implement the semantic interoperability for exchanging official electronic letters across 29 government agencies using 15 heterogeneous software systems developed by different vendors. To achieve the project goal, a holistic approach was designed in which many policy-makers and practitioners had to involve in collaborative activities. This chapter explores the approach in details. It includes the process of data harmonization, modeling and standardizations using a number of UN/CEFACT specifications, UMM, CCTS and XML NDR, and other international standards. From this project the first national XML schema standard was produced. This chapter also introduces a methodology of extending the interoperability to legacy systems based on web services technology. Finally, it describes risk managements with the key success factors for the electronic interoperability development in Thailand.


2021 ◽  
pp. 129-193
Author(s):  
Sofia Boulmrharj ◽  
Soukayna Berrabah ◽  
Mohamed Bakhouya ◽  
Zineb Bouhssine ◽  
Radouane Ouladsine ◽  
...  

2016 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 1-13 ◽  
Author(s):  
Farshid Rahmani ◽  
Malik M A Khalfan ◽  
Tayyab Maqsood

This paper aims to review the use of various construction procurement systems and present the development of Relationship-Based Procurement (RBP) Methods currently in use within the Australian construction industry. Therefore, this paper provides the historical development of procurement briefly and then focuses on the adoption of Relationship-Based Procurement (RBP) approaches in the Australian construction industry to investigate the future direction of the collaborative project procurement arrangements. Semi-structured interviews with high-level managers in the Australian state government organizations have been conducted to answer the research question. A discussion has been presented about the potential future tendency of the industry in adopting a RBP. The findings suggest that even though relationship based procurement systems offer significant benefits; they are not popular among the public sector decision makers because of inability to demonstrate Value for Money (VfM) propositions for public projects. Other reasons which may cause a move away from using RBPs in the future include the need for managers to fully engage throughout the project, and the lack of collaborative environment within the construction industry in general. 


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